Here’s a super scary ghost story just right for Halloween: “Small Spaces” by Katherine Arden. After a field trip to a supposedly haunted house called Smoke Hollow, 11 year old Ollie’s bus breaks down, and her teacher returns to the house to get help. The bus driver quickly turns to face the kids, advising them to get away before nightfall and to “avoid large places, stick to small.” Good grief, who’s coming after them?!

Looking for a challenge? Seek out Sean Carroll’s new book, “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime.” Quantum mechanics, according to some in the field, is both weird and impossible to truly understand. One just accepts the fact that reality depends on the observer; i.e., the object must be observed by someone/thing. Look up the theory of  “Schroedinger’s Cat” for a fuller explanation. Carroll posits a wholly different theory: every time there’s a quantum event, a world (and you) splits off with everything replicated, except for the fact that the quantum event didn’t yet happen. Got it?

Both of these are available at the library – go now!